Next Tuesday, its going down. BET will premiere "The Bobby Brown Story" on Sept. 4th & 5th. This 2-night miniseries will pick up where The New Edition Story left off, this time focusing on the group's bad boy, the King Of Stage, Bobby Brown. We'll get a glimpse of the ups and downs of the King Of R&B. Executive produced by Jesse Collins, Bobby and his wife, Alicia Etheredge Brown

Bobby Brown is a fighter. A real one. At the age of 14 he was trying to figure out if his new singing career was going to be a ticket out of Boston’s Orchard Park projects. Boxing was a strong backup, but Brown’s mother wanted him to give up the sport and go full throttle with a crew being called New Edition — or with anything else, really, than being in the ring.

Young Brown had been singing with neighborhood friends Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell, Ralph Tresvant and Corey Rackley (who left the group), and founded what eventually became New Edition. “My mother didn’t want me to box, and my father didn’t want me to sing,” Brown says now. “I did both.” As a teenage Golden Gloves boxer in Boston, he had a scheduled match in New York City, and his mother — begrudgingly — came with him. His career as a would-be professional boxer ended on that trip. “She saw the guy that I was supposed to fight, and she said, ‘No! You’re not fighting!’ The guy was a big white guy, and he looked rougher than me. … My mother said, ‘You’re not supposed to box. I want you to sing.’ ”

And so, he did.

In 1983, the year Brown quit the sport, New Edition recorded and released their first album, Candy Girl. Brown’s journey with New Edition wasn’t an easy one, though. After a tumultuous time with the group — as brought to life in last year’s excellent The New Edition Story miniseries — in 1985 Brown was voted out of the group he helped found. The next year, he released his first solo album, King of Stage, which spawned a lone hit, “Girlfriend.” Singing over swinging. Had Brown chose wisely? After King of Stage, what Brown needed was a first-round knockout. He got it in 1988. It’s been 30 years since his genre-defining second solo album Don’t Be Cruel dropped in the thick of the summer of 1988. Brown’s career was at stake. “I wanted to bring what New Edition was — but solo,” Brown said. “New Edition is a performing group, we love to perform … We practice hard and perform hard … I wanted to be able to bring that energy to people without me even speaking. I wanted to walk out on the stage and the crowd goes nuts. I wanted that.”

And the best way to do that, he thought, was to somehow mix the sounds of rhythm and blues and and the still burgeoning rap music genre. Brown had a new friendship with a young producer named Teddy Riley, who had the funky type of street sound that he craved.

“[Riley] was telling me he’s got songs. I was like, ‘We need to get together.’ I had this bassline in my head I’d been working with, but didn’t have the right beat … Teddy had the perfect beat.” Brown says all this, and then stops to hum the familiar bassline of what became “My Prerogative,” his signature song and biggest hit. “We went to his little apartment in the projects, me, him, and Aaron Hall, and we just hammered it out.”

An appetite was whetted that day. And a different kind of fight began. Whatever happened that day in New York, that was the vibe Brown wanted all over this next project — funky, fun and … different from everything that was happening in R&B music at the time. MCA Records brought him two producers to help shape his vision, but Brown wasn’t sure they could help. Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Antonio “L.A.” Reid didn’t look the part when Brown first met them.

“I was flabbergasted. I almost busted out in tears,” Brown said. “They didn’t know how to dress. I don’t know where they got their gear from, but it wasn’t [a] style I would choose for anyone. I had to tell them they have to stop wearing suits and dark shades. But they had their own flavor … so I just accepted it.” And when he heard the first pieces of music the duo had for him? He still wasn’t sure it was the right fit. “They had really smooth, well-written songs,” Brown said. “And I just didn’t believe in them. But … miracles happen.”

So they did.

The new The Bobby Brown Story, starring Woody McClain as Brown and Gabrielle Dennis as Whitney Houston, airs on BET Sept. 4 and 5, and tells the story of Brown as solo artist. This is the behind-the-scenes story of Don’t Be Cruel, an album that changed R&B forever — and became the blueprint for the careers of Usher, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber and more. Let’s take it song by song with Bobby Brown.

Before a lyric is crooned, Brown’s album begins. In this hauntingly melodic 37 seconds is a hint of the sophistication Brown is going for.

“I had no fears,” Brown said. “I knew it was great music. I knew I was working with great producers, and I knew we’d done something great in the studio. And I knew [record executive] Louil Silas Jr., and [publicist] Juanita Stephens, and [record executive] Jheryl Busby were behind me — I just appreciated that.”

This actually was the second track that Brown laid down for this album — hearing the song excited the singer because it had all the trimmings he was looking for in this new musical direction. Reid and Edmonds were delivering. “I remember just running the lyrics, and going in there and singing it, and then listening to it. Once I listened, it was just like, ‘OK. It got rap, it got R&B. That’s what I need.’” He also got a title track — making this song the name of the entire album was a direct message. “With my first album they was judging me because I was kicked out of New Edition … the fans were judging me. So with Don’t be Cruel it was basically telling them, ‘Don’t be cruel. Just listen to the music. Watch the videos. And trust me, I’m not going to flake out and be an artist that you won’t love. Because I’m all about love. Everything about me is all about love.’”

The biggest track on the album wasn’t the title cut though, it was this — the song Brown, Riley and Hall worked on together in New York, and the song that ended up being nominated for a Grammy, and was No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It also nabbed the top 10 positions in places such as Ireland, New Zealand, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. “I had to let people know that, ‘What I’m going to do is what I’m going to do. Don’t be mad about it. It’s my prerogative,’” Brown said. “And that’s for everybody to feel. It’s your prerogative. Whatever you’re going to do, you’re going to do it anyway. So don’t be ashamed of who you are, or what you are, or what you’re going to do. Just be you. As long as you be you, nobody can take that away from you.” Brown said he was speaking to a lot of folks at that point in his life — he’d heard enough from distractors. “It’s my prerogative that I had a baby at 17. It’s my prerogative that I got married at 23. Or it’s my prerogative that I do what I do, that I get on stage every night and bust my a– just to entertain people. It’s my prerogative,” he said. “This is what I want to do. So I do it.” This was the last song he recorded for the album— Brown left the Los Angeles studio to go back to Riley and Hall in New York so that they could record the song they’d worked on in Riley’s apartment — this was the sound that Brown wanted. It was the jumping-off spot for the entire project: the aggressive, synth-y sound Brown wanted. “The person I was at that time, I was really in the mood for some funk, and something just … nasty. And Teddy gave it to me,” Brown said.

This slow track was the first song recorded on Brown’s album — and it was never even intended for him. Edmonds planned for this song to be on his second studio album, Tender Lover. Edmonds had already recorded the track. But Brown heard it and loved it, and asked if he could lay down some vocals. “I put some power in it when I sung it. He was flabbergasted. He was just like, ‘Dude. Oh, yeah, this is your song. This ain’t my song.’ Because he was also doing his album at the same time, so it was like a battle of who could sing the song better,” Brown remembered with a laugh. “He wrote it, and he had it ready for his album. But he played it for me and I was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to put some heat on that.’ He’s like, ‘What you mean?’ I was like, ‘Put me in the studio. Let me show you.’ And he heard me sing it. Him and L.A. was like, ‘No, this got to go on your album.’”

A song that defined radio’s quiet storm sound, Brown says he had someone specific in mind when he was recording this track. According to Brown, he’d been in a relationship with Janet Jackson around this time. She’d had ridiculous success with her 1987 Control, which coincidentally was precursor to what Brown would do with Don’t Be Cruel. “I was in a relationship with Janet, I dedicated it to her,” he said. “I don’t know why. I do know why, but you know, that’s an old story.”

Brown wasn’t pleased when he heard this track. It reminded him of everything he was trying to escape.

“Didn’t like that song at all. Didn’t want to even do it because it just sounded too candy-ish, like New Edition,” he said. “So, [I was like] … OK, I’ll do it. But I don’t know if it’s going to make the album. But it made the album and it was a hit.” It was a hit — and then some. The track earned Brown his first Grammy, for best male R&B vocal performance at the 1990 ceremony.

Left photo: R&B singer Bobby Brown poses for a portrait session holding an October 1986 issue of “Right On!” magazine in Los Angeles. Right photo: Brown with a girl on stage.

Brown co-wrote this track with Gene Griffin, who was instrumental in writing and producing music for acts such as Guy, Wreckx-n-Effect, Keith Sweat, Boy George and Heavy D.

“We were having fun … just having fun, and the track just was too funky to give up. I didn’t want to give that track to nobody,” Brown said. “After writing it we just decided it would go onto the album.”

Brown went to trusted friend Larry White to help him with this track. White had delivered Brown’s lone hit from King of Stage, “Girlfriend,” which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B charts for two weeks.

“Larry, he’s just always been a good friend. He used to play guitar for me. And he wrote ‘Girlfriend.’ And I needed another hit,” Brown said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to the source.’ You know? And Larry was there with a brand-new song that was just dynamite, and I was able to write something on it that was good.”

This sexed-up track came after a night of fishing. Brown laughs at the memory. They took a break from recording the album to do something entirely different. He and White (who co-wrote the track) left the studio to go fishing — and they didn’t catch a thing. So they headed back to the studio to work on what became this sexy tune. “We just went in the studio and started writing, and that’s what came out,” Brown said.

Bobby Brown performs at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis in May 1989.

Brown had a lot to work for. He was only 19 years old when Don’t Be Cruel dropped, but he was already a father. The mother of his children had gone through a lot — her children’s father was on the road, chasing fame and trying to redirect a career for which he’d sacrificed a lot. And Brown wanted to honor her. He’d scribbled down what ultimately became the lyrics to this track years ago in homage. He ended up co-writing this song with Gordon Jones. “My daughter and my son’s mother — I had wrote that song so long ago — and I wrote it for her and sung it to her first. And then all of a sudden, here I am doing my second album, and I figured, ‘Why not put it on the album?’”

The album closes out in the same way it began, with those haunting chamber musiclike sounds, signaling the end of the genre-defining, game-changing album. What Brown and his production team were able to do was almost single-handedly change everything — with one album. Don’t Be Cruel has inspired so much of what we hear today in pop music. And 30 years later, it still resonates. “It means everything,” Brown said. “We put in the work, and the people appreciated it. The people took to it. It’s everlasting. These days, these cats are putting out music that is going to be forgotten in 20 days. So I’m just grateful that we were able to do things that are memorable, that gives a message, and spreads love throughout the world. It’s just been a nice journey, to be able to make music to uplift people, and give people some type of hope, some type of spirit that life doesn’t give you. You need music in order to maintain your sanity. Music lets you remember different things. Music is everything.”

The actress who is playing Janet (who looks more like Chilli from TLC) is Cree Davis here is her bio https://menafn.com/109737...ree-Davis. Her appearance looks more Janet from 93 than 89 when they were "dating"

Bobby Brown struggled with drugs and drink, but his greatest addiction was Whitney Houston.

That’s the only conclusion you can draw from the two-night, four-hour miniseries “The Bobby Brown Story,” about the Boston R&B superstar (Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 p.m. on BET) that portrays Whitney as a tempest of talent and tantrums who titillates and torments Bobby for years.

With Bobby as a co-executive producer, the film doubles as image rehab, though viewers may be surprised by how much Whitney is vilified. It’s not that she’s thrown under the bus. It’s as if she’s tossed off a chasm, the ground filled in and salted.

The low point in their relationship might be when he suffers a stroke in their mansion and she takes her drugs, gives him a kick and leaves the help to deal with him.

Woody McClain stars as Bobby, returning to the role he played in the well-received “The New Edition Story” last year. That miniseries covered bits of this story, but this is a deeper dive into Bobby’s life, particularly his solo career efforts. It’s not a sequel — a side-quel? We need a new word for these franchise efforts.

The film harkens back to Brown’s youth in the Orchard Park Projects in Roxbury, where the violence he witnesses scars him and leads him to the excesses that threaten to ruin his life.

As a rising solo artist, he has a flair for getting audiences on their feet and women out of their clothes. He crosses paths with Whitney (Gabrielle Dennis, “Marvel’s Luke Cage,” “Rosewood”) at the 1989 Soul Train Awards. She loses to Anita Baker, but wins Bobby’s attention.

He sees what no one else does: She’s no princess.

On their wedding day, he discovers she uses cocaine, and the miniseries implies she led Brown right into hard drugs and years of partying. Brown’s cheating and his multiple children by multiple women are acknowledged here, and the miniseries alleges Whitney wasn’t faithful either and leaves no doubt as to Bobby’s opinion of her best galpal Robyn Crawford (Yvonne Senat Jones), whose glares probably could turn lesser men to salt.

There are some terrific re-creations of his greatest hits that will get you off the couch and probably drive you to Spotify and iTunes. Such celebrities as Kevin Costner, Janet Jackson, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and even Heather Locklear are re-created with varying success.

Neither Dennis nor McClain especially look like their actual inspirations, but that’s not as important as their ability to channel the outlandish behavior. The miniseries faithfully re-creates some scenes from Bobby’s ill-fated 2005 reality series “Being Bobby Brown,” which turned out to be the last straw for Whitney.

That second night covers a lot of loss: the end of their marriage and the deaths of his beloved parents, Whitney and their daughter Bobbi Kristina (played as a young woman by Donshea Hopkins, “Power”). The latter two perished three years apart in bizarrely similar circumstances, drowning in bathtubs.

The coda notes Brown has found fulfillment with his six surviving children, his second marriage and his line of foods and his music.

After the huge success of The New Edition Story last year, there was no way BET wasn’t going to go for more of the same glory, and that’s what The Bobby Brown Story is at its bottom line. With a lot of the highs (natural and chemically induced) and lows of Brown’s marriage to Whitney Houston and his great tunes, money is exactly what the September 4-premiering two-night authorized biopic is all about, with Woody McClain reprising his role from last season’s ratings-busting three-night New Edition Story miniseries.

Although visually inhibited on a number of occasions, the series directed by Kiel Adrian Scott, written by Abdul Williams, executive produced by Jesse Collins and co-produced by Brown himself is money, as I say in my video review above, because it focused on giving the people what they want. That desire being the inside dope on the R&R superstar’s 15-year media-spotlight marriage to Houston, who is played here with coy deliberation by Rosewood alum Gabrielle Dennis.

In a relationship where Brown was quickly cast as the villain in the public’s mind, the well-heeled couple face-plant into drug addiction together and individually, and the series and a solid McClain take you down into that destructive place.

In the best tradition and prerogative of a soap, with enough of the spectacle and superstar walk-ins you’d expect, The Bobby Brown Story is clearly a redemption tale, for better and worse. The latter is a cautionary note that comes sometimes in such authorized biographies at the expense of the dirty truth.

However, if you go in knowing what version of events you are getting, The Bobby Brown Story is worth checking out for the BTS and, more importantly, the music.

(CNN)After a pair of major documentaries and a Lifetime TV movie devoted to the late Whitney Houston, "The Bobby Brown Story" -- based on his autobiography -- feels a bit like a reclamation project, one that puts a more Brown-friendly spin on the couple's history. That doesn't invalidate a BET miniseries that offers lots of music and doses of nostalgia, but it feels more like an old (and at times self-serving) edition, not a new one.

Speaking of New Edition, the hectic first hour skips over much of Brown's early biography -- including his New Edition years. In that, it's essentially structured as a companion to BET's earlier miniseries about the group, with Woody McClain, as Brown, reprising his role from that production.
As a result, "Bobby Brown" feels as if it's racing to get to his successful solo career and relationship with Houston. In between, Brown anoints his brother (Mekhi Phifer) as his manager, engages in a torrid affair with Janet Jackson and generally reaps the traditional rewards from stardom, down to delaying the "Ghostbusters" shoot while he entertains groupies in his trailer.
The story becomes a bit more complicated when Brown begins his whirlwind relationship with Houston (Gabrielle Dennis), who he woos, as his brother notes, immediately after swearing off any more entanglements with other famous musical stars.

Not surprisingly, the treatment here is much kinder to Brown regarding the friction in their lives, while practically reducing Houston's close friend Robyn Crawford to mean-governess status -- glaring from the sidelines and at one point telling Brown, "I was here before you, and I will be here after you."
Yet if "The Bobby Brown Story" doesn't quite qualify as a "warts and all" portrayal -- ignoring, for example, reports that Brown grew resentful of his wife's success -- it's still plenty warty -- dealing with Brown's drug use and a stint in jail, during which he became clean and sober, at least for a time, before the eventual split with Houston.
"Before I met you, they loved me," Houston snaps at him during one of their frequent fights, as the tabloid headlines pile up.
The two-part production fares best when it's reveling in the music, offering a reminder that Brown had a life and career that went beyond the tragedies involving Houston and their daughter, Bobbi Kristina. Perhaps inevitably, the second night becomes a rather morbid affair down the stretch, chronicling those losses as well as the deaths of Brown's parents.
Despite the demands of a story filled with so much melodrama, McClain -- reunited with the key members of the "New Edition" creative team -- proves a solid anchor, convincingly playing Brown across a wide span of years.
As for the spin that Brown's cooperation brings to this version of events that doesn't comport with previous depictions of the couple, one supposes as a producer on his own autobiography, that's his prerogative.
"The Bobby Brown Story" premieres Sept. 4 and 5 at 9 p.m. on BET.[Edited 9/3/18 14:22pm]

Review: BET's 'Bobby Brown Story' packs compelling highs and lows for music fans and pop culture fiendsWoody McClain, left, star of BET's "The Bobby Brown Story," and the pop star himself in early August in Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Gumby hairdos, sequined genie pants and lots of tragedy populate “The Bobby Brown Story,” BET’s biopic of R&B bad boy Bobby Brown, the former New Edition member who was celebrated as a performer and villainized as the husband of Whitney Houston.

The two-part miniseries, which premieres Tuesday, follows Brown from the beginnings of his solo career to the heights of fame with songs such as “My Prerogative” to his music-star royalty marriage with Houston to the drug addictions that brought his career — and ultimately her life — to an end.

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The drama, co-produced by Brown, grew out of last year’s BET ratings boon “The New Edition Story.” This chapter is Brown’s story from his perspective — a man who’s suffered more loss than anyone should and who was often blamed for the tragedies that befell those around him.

How accurate is “The Bobby Brown Story”? It’s hard to say because facts and history are pliable when viewed through tabloid media accounts, pop music lore and the memories of those who lived the dream-turned-nightmare.

As a drama, however, the first half of the “The Bobby Brown Story” (the only part available for review) reveals a compelling miniseries filled with the sort of controversy, nostalgia and personal ups and downs that music fans and pop culture junkies find irresistible. In “The Bobby Brown Story” we’re meant to see the man behind the tabloid headlines and the jokes of late-night hosts and comedians.

Woody McClain, who also starred in “The New Edition Story,” reprises his role as the conflicted, passionate and frequently selfish Brown. Gabrielle Dennis plays Houston, a vivacious and bubbly personality whose light begins to fade even before their 1992 marriage due to the pressures of fame and the effects of cocaine. Brown was often portrayed in the media as the corrupting influence that got Houston hooked on drugs, but here, it’s Houston who brings the drugs into their monied home.

This scripted version of Brown is no angel, however. He cheats on Houston, needs no help getting high on his own and has a pop star-sized ego.

The chemistry between Brown and Houston is magnetic and dangerous throughout the first half of the miniseries. They’re in love — a deep and real love — but they’re also terrible for each other. They’re soul mates who understand what it means to come from nothing then have it all, but their combined baggage portends a catastrophic end we all know is coming: substance abuse, arrests, the train-wreck Bravo reality series “Being Bobby Brown,” their 2007 divorce, her 2012 death and their daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death three years later.

The miniseries, directed by Kiel Adrian Scott, written by Abdul Williams and executive produced by Jesse Collins, also stars Mekhi Phifer as Brown's brother Tommy and T.K. Carter as their father, Herbert. They along with the rest of the cast paint a story of loss and redemption that can be stiff and amateur at times and has some pacing issues, but it stays focused on dramatic points in Brown’s life, and there are plenty to keep viewers entertained. McClain’s vibrant performances of Brown’s ’80s and ’90s hits (covers of original recordings), and the addition of other popular music from the time, provide a much-needed context to the wild ride that is Brown’s life.

I did not know Bobby Brown slept with Janet Jackson then kicked her out.
I'm watching this movie. [Edited 9/3/18 15:49pm]

I wouldn't be so quick to believe everything Bobby says. I remember him trying to put this book out back in 2008. He told the same story about Janet and him. But he never said he threw her out of his hotel room naked. That's a pretty big detail to leave out especially if it was true. Homeboy sounds like he is embellishing the story to make it juicier. She was there for a good time. He wanted a full relationship. Listening to his audiobook I could tell the rejection from her still bothers him to this day.[Edited 9/3/18 16:44pm]

I did not know Bobby Brown slept with Janet Jackson then kicked her out. I'm watching this movie. [Edited 9/3/18 15:49pm]

Yuuuuup he didn't talk about that in his first bio in 2008. Also find it really interesting that he would show years at Janet events after he married Whitney Houston eg. Singer Bobby Brown attends the Party for Janet Jackson's Sold-Out Concert Tour and Plaque Presentation for 10 Million Copies of 'Janet' Album on April 7, 1994 at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage)

[Edited 9/3/18 17:30pm]

Party for Janet Jackson's Sold-Out Concert Tour and Plaque Presentation for 10 Million Copies of 'Janet' Album & Hangin' with Bill Bellamy 1994 (which Bobby attended!).

I did not know Bobby Brown slept with Janet Jackson then kicked her out. I'm watching this movie. [Edited 9/3/18 15:49pm]

I wouldn't be so quick to believe everything Bobby says. I remember him trying to put this book out back in 2008. He told the same story about Janet and him. But he never said he threw her out of his hotel room naked. That's a pretty big detail to leave out especially if it was true. Homeboy sounds like he is embellishing the story to make it juicier. She was there for a good time. He wanted a full relationship. Listening to his audiobook I could tell the rejection from her still bothers him to this day. [Edited 9/3/18 16:44pm]

Here is a bit of trivia......The woman in the Rock Wit'cha (1989) video is based on Janet. He calls her "my angel" and "thickness". Dang, she even sounds and looks like Janet more than Cree Davis did in the The Bobby Brown Story

I wonder if they will show Bobby's sexual encounter with the ghost, and how he taught MJ to moonwalk? Woody McClain on portraying Bobby Brown in The Bobby Brown Story https://www.metro.us/ente...-story-bet

Woody McClain can't wait for the world to see The Bobby Brown Story, especially the fans—and trolls—on Twitter.

The actor, who portrays the titular R&B bad boy in BET's new miniseries, is actually looking forward to the prospect of dealing with misbehaving social media users, which doesn't come as too much of a surprise, as he has some experience in this arena.

"Oh no," McClain says when asked if he's afraid of dealing with Twitter trolls who lash out when the series premieres."Before I was acting, I was a Twitter troll, so I get it."

"I laugh at it now," he adds. "I didn't mean anything by it. I was just saying stupid stuff."

That playfully defiant attitude is part of what makes McClain a perfect fit for The Bobby Brown Story, a dramatization that covers the controversial singer's life and legacy, warts and all. McClain, who previously played Brown in last year's New Edition miniseries, tells Metro that viewers will get to see the real story behind Brown's headline-grabbing controversies.

"People just read what they see in the media and just think that's what it is," says McClain. "They're only reading the end. They don't see the beginning. They don't see what happens before those moments."

"This story, it shows you why certain things you read in the media happened," he adds. "It's going to tell you about the love story that he had that nobody knows about. It's going to show you all those things. That's what I'm just extremely excited for the world to see and to read comments on Twitter to see how people feel about."

According to McClain, the hardest part about playing Brown was figuring out a way to emulate "that Bobby Brown swagger on stage." Thankfully, McClain had the chance to pick the man's brain about all his trade secrets, although don't expect the actor to spill the beans, as he's "locking all that in the vault."

"That walk he had, that look he had. His tongue thing he likes to do, all the pelvic thrusts," says McClain. "I had to really dig in and find those key moments that he brings on stage. I was able to talk to him about those moments and find out his secrets, and find out what gives him that energy on stage because I had to bring it."Brown and his family played a "big part" in shaping the actor's performance in the two-night event, offering him advice on how to pull off every aspect of the artist, both on and off the stage. McClain couldn't thank them enough for all the insight they provided as he prepared for The Bobby Brown Story.

"I respect Bobby and his family so much," says McClain. "I'm extremely honored to be doing it."

McClain reveals that the new series will mostly tackle Brown's life after his New Edition years, so expect to see much of the focus go to his high-profile relationship with Whitney Houston, as well as Brown's struggles with addiction. The actor admits that what attracted him to the role was the singer's ability to deal with so many obstacles and painful moments, such as the death of Houston and their daughter Bobbi Kristina.

"I want to play characters that overcome the impossible," says McClain. "Who's better than Bobby Brown? He's been through the drugs, he's been through losing his ex-wife, losing his child—and he's still here. He's still strong. He's gotten over the impossible."

Brown's legacy is complicated. On one hand, he's considered to be a musical "legend" by many, including McClain, having "opened doors for a lot o the R&B singers that are out today." On the other hand, Brown's story is forever intertwined with instances of substance abuse, domenstic violence and unfortunate tragedies.

Overall, McClain is happy with his work on The Bobby Brown Story, although he hasn't seen the finished product yet. The actor plans to watch and tweet along with everyone else when it debuts.

"We put so much work and dedication into making a great story," McClain says. "I'm excited that it's finally about to come out." He adds, "We all going to troll together."

Bobby Brown didn't want to talk about the past, meaning he -- or, more precisely, his rep -- balked at questions about drug use, violence and Whitney Houston during a recent interview with NJ Advance Media.Why dwell, they argue, when the two-part BET biopic, "The Bobby Brown Story," will detail Brown's side of the story when it airs Sept. 4 and 5?

"It's just been a wonderful time for me. I've been really working on myself and trying to be a better person and a better man," Brown said. "I've been sober over 10 years now. It's been a long, good walk, but it's a day-to-day thing. You have to work on yourself every day."

Brown was speaking ahead of two upcoming local performances by the newly formed RBRM; the members include Ronnie Devoe, Brown, Ricky Bell and Michael Bivins.

He was also promoting his biopic, a sequel to BET's 2017 three-part miniseries "The New Edition Story." (Two of the three episodes ranked among the network's highest rated and most wa...telecasts in the last five years.) Woody McClain, who played Brown in that mini-series, has reprised the role in "The Bobby Brown Story," which focuses on Brown's life after he left New Edition to launch a solo career -- a 30-year period that includes his marriage to Houston, who died in 2012, and the birth of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who died in 2015.

Because Brown was promoting his life story, it seemed reasonable to ask about his relationship with beloved native daughter Houston. Two recent documentaries about the late singer portrayed Brown as jealous, violent and troubled. The two were married from 1992 to 2007. In 2003, he was charged with battery after he was alleged to have hit Houston, something he admitted in a 2016 20/20 interview but denied during a press con...e in July, saying, "There were no violent incidents." Asked why he wanted to be part of the biopic -- Brown and his wife of six years, Alicia Etheredge Brown, are co-producers -- the singer said, "We figured it was time to tell my story, the second half of my story from the New Edition part. This has been a passion of mine, to let everyone know the truth -- exactly what makes up Bobby Brown, and makes me the man that I am and the man I'm going to be."

The miniseries' trailer shows Brown being violent and doing drugs. What did Brown believe had been misrepresented? "Throughout the years, there's been the stories -- and the things I know for a fact I know that aren't true about me, myself," he said. When asked if this related to Houston, Brown was about to answer until his rep cut in: Any further questions along that line would end the interview. Brown would talk about his new song, RBRM's upcoming concerts and his life now, which includes six surviving children (three younger than 9, with Etheredge Brown) and two grandchildren.

So, what is it like to be performing again with thee of his oldest friends? "It's just so much fun, to be back out on stage and together with BBD," he said, referring to his bandmates by the first letter of each of their last names, which led to the moniker for their post-New Edition band, Bell Biv Devoe. "I love the way they perform. They love the way I perform."

New Edition grew out of Boston's Roxbury public housing development in the late 1970s, where a group of friends, who had known each other since elementary school, sang together. The band's biggest hits dropped when they were teenagers, include 1983's "Candy Girl," 1984's "Cool It Now" and 1985's "Count Me Out." Brown embarked on his solo career after the last song.

The band reunited only briefly in the years that followed, but Brown said they always stayed close.

"They are my friends and brothers," he said, noting their role in his sobriety. "They keep me grounded."

As New Edition, the performers were known for their high-energy choreography as well as their music. Do they still have "it"? "We are 50, but we still do what we were built to do," Brown promised. While the band doesn't have new music lined up for release, "The Bobby Brown Story" soundtrack has the new release, "Like Bobby," a collaboration with Kenneth "BabyFace" Edmonds and Teddy Riley.

"It's about my life, being like Bobby," Brown said. "It's a gritty type of dance track."

Off-stage, Brown said, his new life is much healthier and much more stable these days. Thanks to his sobriety, he's enjoying being more present and involved in the raising of his three youngest children. He's a better parent now, he said. "I'm more patient with life. I'm more patient with myself," he said. "I'm trying to love myself more, and be able to give love and show love to others better." Another way Brown of showing his love, Brown said, is the work he's doing in memory of Bobbi Kristina, who died at age 22, months after she was found face-down and unconscious in a bathtub. Her death mirrored her mother's: Whitney Houston, 48, died in an accidental drowning in a hotel bathtub.

In 2017, Brown established Bobbi Kristina Serenity House, a 24-hour domestic violence intervention line and emergency shelter, in an Atlanta suburb. Bobbi Kristina was living in Atlanta with boyfriend Nick Gordon in 2015 when she was discovered unresponsive in their home; she remained in a coma for six months before her death. Her estate filed a wrongful death suit against Gordon, accusing him of domestic violence against Brown. in 2016, a judge ordered Gordon to...36 million.

Some balked at Bobby Brown, who had been accused of domestic violence, for being lauded for his efforts in Bobbi Kristina's name. But with questions about Houston off the table, Brown was asked if he planned to visit Westfield while in New Jersey. In his 2016 "20/20" interview, Brown told Robin Roberts he had never been to Westfield's Fairview Cemetery, where Bobbi Kristina is interred next to her mother and other Houston family members. Brown was momentarily confused by the question, not recognizing the name of the town where the cemetery is located, then said he had no plans to visit.

"I'm not big on places like that," he said. He said that he doesn't have to go anywhere to be with Bobbi Kristina because "she's always with me. She's never left my heart or my side."

RBRM: RONNIE, BOBBY, RICKY, MIKE

CAPTION: Superstars Janet Jackson and Eddie Murphy help Bobby Brown celebrate the sale of 5 million copies of Don't Be Cruel. Dated 14/01/1990 (Ebony) However, on Getty pics that date says that the party was on October 16 1989????????

Here is a Black & White version......so this was taken months before or after their break-up?

[Edited 9/3/18 20:31pm]

I didn't even know they dated...

I knew there was "something going on" from reading Fresh, Word-Up and Countdown magzines all those years ago. Also in Out of the Madness: The Strictly Unauthorized Biography of Janet Jackson by Bart Andrews (1993) that the real reason she broke up with Bobby, is because she found out that he had children with 2 different women, and she wasn't sure that he would be faithful to her.....(this reminded her of all the hurt Joe inflicted on her mom Katherrine with Jo'vonnie) so she dumped him. Which might explain why over the years Bobby has attended Janet Jackson events!

Bobby Brown uncensored: the controversial singer tells his side of the story in BET specialBET will tell "The Bobby Brown Story," in a two-part film premiering Tuesday. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

On a hot August day in Hollywood, Bobby Brown is giving “Bobby Brown” a lesson in how to have sex.

The singer is sitting next to actor Woody McClain, who plays Brown in BET’s “The Bobby Brown Story,” a two-part film premiering Sept. 4 about the popular and infamous R&B bad boy known for both his string of monster hits — with his group New Edition and as a solo act — and his headline-grabbing offstage behavior, much of it linked to his stormy marriage to the late artist Whitney Houston.

McClain, who portrays a younger Brown in the project, recalled what it was like to channel Brown’s wildly sexual antics in concert that were so explicit Brown was once arrested for simulating sex on stage and violating a Columbus, Ga., “anti-lewdness” law in 1989. As the talk turned to the film’s numerous sex scenes, McClain told Brown how closely he had studied the singer’s raunchy mannerisms.

“I’m like, 'Am I doing it right?’ ” McClain joked to Brown, referring to him affectionately as “Mom.”

“Naw, you gotta do it like this” Brown responded, bouncing to his feet. The 49-year-old began thrusting his hips and pumping his arms in a rapid-fire, simultaneous motion. ”You gotta break that back!” He laughed as he sank back into the couch, and even the presence of a female reporter did not inhibit his rowdy behavior.

The singer gets a producer credit on the two-part movie, which intimately covers his roller-coaster life and career. The project follows the network’s successful 2017 miniseries “The New Edition Story”, about the seminal boy group that launched Brown.

BET hopes to repeat the success of that film — Parts 1 and 3 of the “The New Edition Story” were the network’s highest-rated and most-watched telecast in five years. The project also arrives 30 years after the release of “Don’t Be Cruel,” Brown’s massively popular album that ushered the hip-hop and R&B fusion sound called “new jack swing” into the mainstream and solidified his place as a successful solo artist.

“The Bobby Brown Story” begins with the singer’s dramatic exit from New Edition. It spans 30 years, following his solo career, marriage to Houston and the death of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, in 2015. It even touches on the 2005 Bravo reality show “Being Bobby Brown” and Houston’s infamous “crack is whack” interview with Diane Sawyer in 2002.

The stakes are high for Brown. The project comes on the heels of two documentaries released within a year of each other , “Whitney” and “Whitney: Can I Be Me” which have thrust the couple’s tempestuous relationship back into the spotlight.

Despite Brown’s popularity, his career was largely overshadowed by Houston’s mega-stardom. He was vilified, publicly blamed for sullying Houston’s squeaky clean image by introducing her to hard drugs. Although Houston’s mother, Cissy, later disproved those claims in her 2013 memoir “Remembering Whitney,” the perceptions remain.

“I don’t want my kids to grow up and have to find a magazine, or videotape or watch a television program that speaks badly about their father,” Brown said, wearing a diamond encrusted gold chain with a picture of his late daughter. “I would rather just tell my kids and show my kids, ‘This is what daddy did in his life. This is how it was back then in my life. Daddy’s not like that no more.’ ”

As producers on “The Bobby Brown Story,” Brown and his manager and wife, Alicia Etheredge-Brown, worked closely with executive producer Jesse Collins and Abdul Williams, who wrote the screenplay for “The New Edition Story.”

I would rather just tell my kids and show my kids, ‘This is what daddy did in his life.’

“We hope [viewers] walk away knowing Bobby in a more intimate way, and they can connect with him,” Etheredge-Brown said.

Williams also pulled details from Brown’s 2016 memoir, “Every Little Step,” in which the singer describes his life in graphic, often shocking, detail.

Some of those anecdotes — including the time a 10-year-old Brown accidentally cooked fried chicken with cocaine instead of flour or a sexual experience with a “ghost” as an adult — don’t appear on screen. But others, including his first encounter with Houston’s cocaine habit on their wedding day, are vividly depicted in the film.

Although Brown’s biopic explores the scars of his relationship with Houston — the drugs, the jail stints, the infidelity — he avoided discussing details about the couple’s struggles in “Whitney” interviews. (The Houston estate declined to comment.)

“I want people to remember her for her music, performances, her beauty,” Brown said in his interview with McClain promoting the film. “I believe if she was here, if she told her story, it’d be a whole different story.”

Moments later, he elaborated: “Why would I talk about her drug use in the documentary? I could talk about mine because mine is plain, cut, pure … but I would never downgrade that woman’s name at any time.”

He said he hasn’t watched the Houston documentaries. But he called “The Bobby Brown Story” his effort to regain control of the narrative by telling their story on his own terms.

It’s been hard for Brown to escape the shadows of his past. While promoting “The Bobby Brown Story” at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in late July, an otherwise smooth panel turned tense when a female reporter asked about past allegations of domestic abuse by Brown against Houston.

“There was no violent incidents between me and Whitney,” Brown said.

The reporter continued, referencing past 911 calls.

“You’re mistaken. You’re completely wrong,” Brown said, before announcing he would take only one more question.

But another reporter continued to press the issue, citing public reports of abuse and referencing a 911 call from 2003 that left Houston with a cut lip and bruises on her face. Brown ended the panel abruptly after the comment, saying, “The public record is wrong.”

Reflecting on that moment during his interview with McClain, Brown wished he had simply reminded journalists to watch the film to examine the relationship and that incident from his perspective.

“I was just pissed off,” Brown said, rising to his feet. “I was like, ‘Lady, I would come out there and choke the [expletive] out of you.’ “

“But I don’t do that.”

Woody McClain, left, who will play a younger Bobby Brown once again in the BET biopic and the singer himself.Woody McClain, left, who will play a younger Bobby Brown once again in the BET biopic and the singer himself. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

After playing Brown in the New Edition miniseries, McClain reprised the role for “The Bobby Brown Story.” The actor had a similar mission for the part — to show a more compassionate, family-oriented side of Brown.

McClain said he knew little about Brown outside of what others told him before taking on the role. But in the process of filming, the 29-year-old spent considerable time hanging out with Brown.

“Bobby’s wild when he’s on stage,” McClain said. “When he’s with his family, he’s a whole different person. I really want people to see that.”

At one point, McClain reached over and grabbed Brown’s shoulder, giving him a playful shake. “This is a real human being right there,” he said. “When you see people on TV for some reason, people don’t think they’re real people.”

Watching Brown’s missteps play out in the public eye was tough, said veteran entertainment journalist Todd “Stereo” Williams.

“The Bobby Brown Story” doesn’t sidestep Brown’s antics, but the film presents him as a flawed but sympathetic artist.

He is currently touring with members of New Edition — Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe — as RBRM. Bell hopes people watching “The Bobby Brown Story” will move beyond Brown’s struggles to understand who he is as a person.

“If there’s other artists or other men struggling, they will be inspired and encouraged by his story,” Bell said.

Although Brown says he is eager to reverse the shadows that have plagued his career, he also has his own theories about how viewers may respond to “The Bobby Brown Story.”

“They’re going to say he was a crazy [expletive], but he is only Bobby,” Brown said. “I’m a better Bobby now than I was before so either accept me or not.”

Is there an album that was ever so big yet ran out of so much steam than Don't Be Cruel. Starts with 6 hit songs (Yes, I'll Be Good To You should've been a hit) and then just spirals downward. I Really Love You Girl sounds like it was just slapped on the last second just to fill out the album.

Is there an album that was ever so big yet ran out of so much steam than Don't Be Cruel. Starts with 6 hit songs (Yes, I'll Be Good To You should've been a hit) and then just spirals downward. I Really Love You Girl sounds like it was just slapped on the last second just to fill out the album.

I must agree that I listen to that album more as a serving platter for all those hit singles and not so much an R&B fan's "album-album".

That said, one cannot deny Bob was on top of the heap, in an era with great music.

Is there an album that was ever so big yet ran out of so much steam than Don't Be Cruel. Starts with 6 hit songs (Yes, I'll Be Good To You should've been a hit) and then just spirals downward. I Really Love You Girl sounds like it was just slapped on the last second just to fill out the album.

I must agree that I listen to that album more as a serving platter for all those hit singles and not so much an R&B fan's "album-album".

That said, one cannot deny Bob was on top of the heap, in an era with great music.

Bobby had more talent than he's given credit for. He could REALLY dance. Just so light on his feet. He didn't copy MJ moves. He did his own thing. His downfall was of course drugs and the night life. Don't think he could stay focused enough in the studio and really needed a solid production team around him. In a sense, he got lucky working with LA, Babyface, and Teddy in their primes.

I don’t remember hearing Bobby using auto tune back in the day so why am I hearing it in the movie? Just can’t make something without messing it up with some millennial bullshit... should of just used the original track and the actress playing Whitney looks more like she should be playing in a Natalie Cole bio pic.